Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta) is an attractive but not a showy plant. But it has great value from a wildlife perspective.
First, let’s deal with the name. “Hoary” does not mean what some of you think it means (don’t bother to deny it). It actually means appearing aged, as in white-haired or grizzled. And in fact, the stems and leaves of of Hoary Vervain are covered with little white hairs.
When people talk about coneflowers, most often they mean Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea). But there is another coneflower that is underutilized in home gardens. I speak of Yellow Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata).
Let’s talk about containers for sun, specifically the ones in our sunny front garden. Our year in containers got off to a rocky start, what with about 90% of my container tulips being killed by the polar vortex. The upside, I suppose, is that I could plant the containers without waiting for the tulips to finish blooming.
Our Conca d’Or Lilies are blooming now. These are Oriental-Trumpet hybrids, also known as OT or Orienpet Lilies. I don’t like either of those names. Orienpet sounds too much like chiapet (“ch-ch-ch-chia!”). And when I hear OT I always think of “overtime”. Overtime Lilies would require time-and-a-half pay, double for holidays. So for me it’s Oriental-Trumpet.
It’s a very peculiar thing. I used to have one clump of Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) in the Driveway Border, and now I have two.
Beckee and Daniel were married in March, and I posted about it here. At the time I promised a follow-up post with some of the official photographs (rather than the ones Judy and I took with our phones). Well, here it is, sorry for the delay.
If I were to sum up the current state of the front garden in 2 words, they would be: Bee Balm. Bee Balm, Bee Balm, Bee Balm. Specifically, Monarda didyma ‘Raspberry Wine’.
The Bee Balm is so visually dominant in part because so many other attention-grabbing plants are blooming late.
Right now is this year’s peak for our Clematis ‘Jackmanii’. It covers most of the west-facing brick wall at the front corner of the house, which I like to call “The Great Wall of Purple”, though it is either white or green for most of the year.
There is a part of the back garden where grass did not grow well, or at all. So I came up with the bright idea of turning it into what I called a “pocket meadow” consisting primarily of Pennsylvania Sedge (Carex pennsylvanica). My thought was that it would look like this, but it hasn’t worked out that way.
gardeninacity 